My Story of Burnout as an Entrepreneur
I wanted to speak today about rest, stress release and burn out, and I’m getting pretty damn vulnerable. I’ve never shared this part of my story online, but I know how important this message is. See, I’ve always logically known the benefits of rest, both in terms of our health but also how it boosts our productivity, but as a Type-A-in-recovery I’ve historically struggled giving myself the space to stop.
This went into overdrive in my early years as a business owner. Teaching was going so great, and I loved being creative on social media, YouTube and here on my blog. The more I taught and the more I wrote, the more successful my business became. This just stoked the flames of my inner high achiever’s drive to keep going. My lifestyle was spacious and flexible, with no demands on me, so there was nothing in the way to slow me down.
On the surface my life was pretty perfect …
- I’d spend the first 90 minutes of every morning practicing yoga, walking and journaling
- Kombucha, green smoothies and quinoa were a daily feature
- My days were a balance of teaching, socialising and abundant alone time (I’m a Projector in HD and alone time is my love language)
- My work was centred around sharing the healing practices I was passionate about, and didn’t feel like work
And, it also featured …
- Admin and busywork even on my “days off”
- Domscrolling on the sofa as quality downtime
- Abundant sleep procrastination
- My laptop in my bed when I was ill (including when I was pregnant and had HG and would go for days without keeping water down, but not without working)
- Struggling to switch off on holidays
After working one-on-one with a lot of ambitious, driven and successful Type A’s,I’ve learned I’m far from alone. Life can resemble highlight-reel levels of perfection, but 99% of the time there’s a big compromise in how we’re living behind the scenes.
My Healing Journey
I truly believe that we all logically know what we need to do to reduce stress – and why it’s so important. But, taking that first step and actually making the much-needed changes to our lives always ends up at the bottom of our to-do lists. As a result, we procrastinate until we’re forced to stop, often when our minds and bodies are unable to carry the stress for us any longer. Yet, often all we need to do is make small changes to our routines and learn new ways of dealing with our stress (so we can actually release it from our nervous system).
For me, I began making these changes in 2019, but it wasn’t until Rei was born 3 years later that I really did the work – and not out of choice! My spare time went down to 0 milliseconds, my yoga practice and alone time were non existent and I couldn’t teach for more than a couple of hours a week. I finally stopped working (by which I mean switched paid work for being a 24/7 parent) and hit the wall.
I realised how chronically burnt out I was, how non-stop I had been for nearly a decade (including throughout my whole pregnancy), and how much I desperately needed to change my approach to work and life.
It was time to finally put into practice all the knowledge on the nervous system, self care and rest that I had acquired after years of study.
I was ready, I was receptive – and I had no time to myself.
So, I got smart.
I created my own toolkit – quick and effective practices that I could rely on to regulate my nervous system, shift my mindset and beliefs, and overall radically improve my lifestyle.
Success isn’t measured in your bank account, it’s measured in your nervous system – Natalie Ellis
Thanks to my toolkit, I …
- instantly notice when I start feeling overwhelmed
- regulate my emotions and energy levels back to calm within seconds
- have tons of energy (no mean feat with a non-sleeping baby/toddler)
- maintain strong boundaries to protect my and my family’s wellbeing
- have cocreated the BEST communication levels in my relationship around expressing/supporting each other’s feelings and what we each need
- don’t turn my laptop on most days of the week
- have enough calm for everyone
- truly feel happy, fulfilled and at peace in my life, no matter how crazy and hectic it can get!
Get My Toolkit!
Self care in this way can be fun, can make your life feel joyful instead of draining, and puts you back in control of your life, inside and out.
I’m so thrilled to be sharing all of this wisdom with you in a special masterclass, Ataraxia, on Sunday 20th October 2-4pm.
Ataraxia, meaning mental tranquility, is designed to help you put these simple but effective changes in place, shift out of selfcare procrastination and into a proactive position of releasing stress and building resilience.
Spaces are filling up quickly! Book soon to avoid disappointment.
Forget about how good your life looks on paper. If you feel overwhelmed, depleted or exhausted, dissatisfied no matter what level of success you’ve reached or longing to press pause on any/every part of your life so you can stop and catch your breath for a moment (phew), you need a new way of dealing with your stress and regulating your nervous system.
